Why can you distinguish between instruments even when they are playing the same note?

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Title. Don’t they have the same frequency? Why would they sound different?

In: Physics

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A sound isn’t usually just a single frequency, it’s actually collection of frequencies called [harmonics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music)), which are all a multiple of the fundamental frequency. Different instruments have different harmonics.

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